I don’t know if you have seen this story yet but it’s heart­warm­ing to say the least… Ron Lynch is a mail­man in Sandy, Utah and was doing his deliv­er­ies like any other day when he noticed 12 yr old Matthew Flo­res going through a bin of “junk mail”. The boy told Lynch he was

Dear Mike & Liza, My fiance’ and I are sup­posed to get mar­ried in Sep­tem­ber and move into his house together. But last week, with­out talk­ing to me about it, he bought a fer­ret. He calls it his “cat-snake” and it runs all over the house. I do NOT want to live in a

How do you reward your chil­dren? A new study shows that chil­dren as young as 4, know when the reward is lame. Preschool­ers aren’t that much inter­ested in stick­ers or prizes that don’t live up to their stan­dards, no mat­ter how hard they worked for it. How do you reward your young chil­dren? Stickers…small toys…treats?

How To Get Out The Door Faster

We could all use a few extra min­utes in the morn­ing, whether we’d use them for another lap around the track or just one more snooze. But short­en­ing your morn­ing rou­tine doesn’t just mean pack­ing your lunch ahead of time and lay­ing out your clothes the night before.

Leave your devices off
As crazy as it might sound, leav­ing your device off in the morn­ing could save you time by pre­vent­ing you from get­ting caught up in emails, social media or games that might oth­er­wise dis­tract you and take away from valu­able prep time in the morning.

Sleep in your work­out gear
If work­ing out is part of your morn­ing rou­tine, try sleep­ing in your work­out clothes to save prep time in the morn­ing. As an added bonus, it’ll also save you some laundry.

Take out­fit snap­shots for inspi­ra­tion
Cre­ate an album on your phone that con­tains pic­tures of you wear­ing var­i­ous items from your closet, with var­i­ous acces­sory com­bi­na­tions. When­ever you’re find your­self won­der­ing if that gold neck­lace is too short for that pink V-neck blouse or if that grey blazer is too snug for a sweater under­neath, save your­self the try-on time and just pull up the photo as a reference.

Skip the elab­o­rate makeup rou­tine
Cut down on your time-consuming beauty rou­tine with some sneaky short cuts. Choose a tinted mois­tur­izer so you can skip the foun­da­tion and bronzer. Opt for a mas­cara that matches your hair color so you can quickly define your brows when you fin­ish with your eye­lashes. And, If you’re really crunched for time, just throw on a bold lip color; it will make you look put together with­out cost­ing you more than a few seconds.

Opt for a satin pil­low­case
Satin is eas­ier on your hair, so swap­ping out your cot­ton or jer­sey knit pil­low­case can reduce the time you spend tam­ing tan­gles or flat­ten­ing frizz.

Dry your hair last
Dry­ing your hair right after the shower means more time under the dryer. Let your hair air dry, or sit in a towel, while you do the rest of your morn­ing rou­tine. When you do finally take out the dryer, it’ll take less time to fin­ish styling.

Com­part­men­tal­ize essen­tials
Store your basics in easy-to-transport pouches so you can eas­ily grab and go with­out wor­ry­ing you’ve for­got­ten some­thing. This will come in par­tic­u­lar handy if you’re prone to bag switch­ing (from back­pack to purse to gym bag and back again!) but can also be use­ful if you decide to do your makeup on the go.Eat and drink before you dress

Use a com­bi­na­tion shampoo/conditioner
While this sim­ple change might not seem like much, only hav­ing to lather and rinse once in the shower could save you a few extra min­utes every the morning.

Brush your teeth in the shower
Save time and water by brush­ing your teeth while you’re in the shower. While it’s prob­a­bly not the most san­i­tary idea to store your tooth­brush along­side your loofah and body wash, keep­ing it within reach will encour­age you to use this time-saving trick each day.

Take advan­tage of timers
Take advan­tage of any of your devices that have self timers to keep your morn­ing mov­ing along. Set up your cof­fee maker the night before and pro­gram­ming it to brew while you get ready, or pro­gram lights to go on when you need to wake up and off by when you need to leave.

Have a des­ig­nated spot for essen­tials
Even a great morn­ing can be derailed by a lengthy search for keys, sun­glasses, a wal­let or other essen­tials. Des­ig­nate a space to keep these things—whether it’s a hook in the hall­way, a bas­ket by the door or a cer­tain pocket in your bag—and com­mit to putting them there each time you get home so you’ll never have to waste another minute dig­ging through coat pock­ets and couch cushions.